Adding lustre to your Cluster

The Double Cluster imaged from our backyard
using my Canon 600d DSLR on a driven mount.
EOS lens at focal length 90 mm.
9x10 second lights plus 3 flats stacked using
(DeepSkyStacker and finished using APS)
3rd January 2014

The Double Cluster, also known as Caldwell 14, is visible to the naked eye from a dark location. Did you know that 'Caldwell' is the late Sir Patrick Moore's middle name? For more information on the Caldwell Catalogue follow the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue

 After midnight, when the street lights are turned off, I can see the Double Cluster as a misty patch located midway between the main stars that make up the constellation Perseus and the 'w' asterism of the constellation Cassiopeia.  To see the two separate clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 I need to employ either my binoculars or telescope.

Enlarged view of the cluster cores

The clusters are at a distance of 7500 light years and are moving towards us (blue shifted) at speeds of 38 and 39 km/sec.  It is thought that the combined mass of the cluster stars and halo weighs in at over 20,000 solar masses.  Each cluster has more than 300 blue -white super giant stars.  The Double Cluster is circumpolar and never sets from my location in the United Kingdom.  I really love to view Caldwell 14 through my 11x80mm binoculars, a real astro-treat!  As the clusters are close to the radiant of the Perseid Meteor shower it's worth patrolling this area in August each year.  I once witnessed, through the eyepiece of my finder-scope,  a fireball meteor passing in front of the Double Cluster.  One of the most breathtaking moments I have experienced as an amateur astronomer.

For more information on the Perseid Meteor shower follow the link:
http://www.cute-calendar.com/event/peak-of-perseid-meteor-shower/6598-world.html

Star map: Looking North
White square denotes location of the Double Cluster, roughly
midway between the naked eye stars Mirfak in Perseus and Ruchbah in Cassiopeia

Credits: SkyMap Pro and Wikipedia

Vultur Gryphus Estuari

Vultures over Southend Pier
Oil on Canvas November 2013
by George Roberts

The run up to Christmas saw frantic paint on canvas and wood action in the Cabine as the artist in residence got going on the 'elf made' presents trail.  The above oil painting captures the unlikely appearance of vultures riding the thermals over Southend Pier. Southend Pier is the longest in the world extending 1.34 miles into the Thames Estuary.  It is so long it even has a passenger train on it!

The Russian Dolls were hand painted in the Cabine to represent Darth , Obi Wan, Han, Luke, Leia and R2D2.  

 Jedi Dolls
Acrylic paint on wood
December 2013
by George Roberts

The Trapezium Jan 2014

The Great Orion Nebula: Messier 42
an image taken from our backyard
January 2014

My last image of Orion this winter is of the central area of the Great Orion Nebula. Not the best image or the most colorful ever taken of this fascinating area of the night sky, but processed to provide a more realistic view of what can be seen through the eyepiece of a small to medium sized telescope.

The Nebula, M42, is a large region of diffuse dust and gas covering one degree of the sky as viewed from the Earth.  It is part of the much larger but less visible Orion Molecular Cloud Complex which extends throughout the constellation of Orion the Hunter.  M42 includes: neutral clouds of gas and dust, young stars, ionised volumes of gas and reflection nebulae. The Nebula, some 24 light years across and 1350 light years distant from Earth, is an example of a stellar nursery where stars are being formed from the gravitational collapse of gas and dust.

To the eye, the Nebula glows in green light with hints of red, violet and blue. The green light results from doubly ionised oxygen, the red from ionised hydrogen and the violet and blue from the reflected radiation from hot blue stars. 

At the centre of the my photograph is the bright association of hot young blue stars known as the 'Trapezium'. The stars are more clearly visible in the image below courtesy of the European Southern Observatory.  Be fair they have bigger and better scopes and cameras at higher altitude and a team of engineers and scientists with skill sets and patience I will never have!

This photo shows a colour composite mosaic image of the central part of the Orion Nebula, based on 81 images obtained with the infrared multi-mode ISAAC instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory. The famous Trapezium stars are seen near the centre and the photo also shows the associated cluster of about 1,000 stars, approximately a million years old. 

Credits:Wikipedia and ESO

Two Moons for the 'price of one'

Two views of the Gibbous Moon
one with increased colour saturation

On a number of nights in January 2014, the Moon has sailed clear and bright, dodging between scudding clouds and sharing its quiet silver light with the cats that congregate on our backyard. I captured these composite views with my Canon 600d DSLR affixed to my 127mm refractor using a 2.5x Barlow.  I saturated the colour on one of the images. The enhanced colour reflects the variations in geological mineral content of the Moon's surface.

Jupiter after Opposition

Probably my clearest image of Jupiter
taken through my 127mm Meade refractor
using my QHY5v Planetary Camera

It was a really clear night and according to my astro software the Great Red Spot was passing across Jupiter's disc so an evening's planetary viewing was on the cards.  I  used my planetary video camera for imaging Jupiter's disc and then my Canon 600d DSLR to capture the four Galilean Moons which had conveniently aligned  two on either side of Jupiter. The following day I constructed the composite image below.

Horsehead Nebula

The Horsehead Nebula
taken from our backyard
in strong moonlight and
 added light pollution

As deep sky images go, this photo of the Horsehead Nebula is rather poor.  It is the first time I have had a go at this rather enigmatic subject and I'm sure that, with practice and patience, I will one day do much better.

The Horsehead Nebula does however have special significance for me.  As a small boy I spent many a happy hour reading through one of the late Sir Patrick Moore's books and in particular gazing at an image of the Horsehead Nebula taken with the 200 inch reflector on Mount Palomar.  For me it exemplified the mystery and wonder of  'Space and the Universe'.

Ironically, my photograph is much better than the one in the book.  My telescope has an aperture of 5 inches, one fortieth of the diameter of the Hale telescope on Mount Palomar but the photo I scanned as a kid was taken with a camera using chemically treated glass plates. My much smaller scope can produce much better images thanks to my DSLR and the power of computer processing.

As I looked through the eyepiece I could just make out the Flame Nebula, to the left of the Orion Belt star Alnitak, but the Horsehead Nebula only became visible after I stacked and processed a number of photos of the area.  As I viewed the stars in Orion's Belt, I watched a satellite or piece of space junk drift silently across the eye-piece's field of view.  Considering mankind's recent and incredible technological advances it is such a shame that we have not made a greater commitment to cleaning up after ourselves!

The Horsehead Nebula
my data reworked 12 May 2014

 

The Horsehead Nebula, always reminds me of the black knights on my chessboard.  In reality it is an immense cloud of gas and dust illuminated from behind by an ionised cloud of  hydrogen gas (IC 434).  The hydrogen is being ionised by the nearby star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, is some 1500 light years distant.

The Hubble Space Telescope's image
 of The Horsehead Nebula

Star map showing the position of the Horsehead Nebula
beneath the belt star Alnitak.

Credits: Wikipedia, Starmap Pro and NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

Orion's Belt

The constellation Orion photographed
 from our Backyard on the 3rd of Jan 2014

I photographed the constellation as it peeked over the gum trees and bushes at the bottom of our garden. The image is rather compromised by the significant light pollution visible close to the southern horizon.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like  tears... in... rain. Time... to die... Roy Batty

Star Map showing Orion's Belt

Credit: Star Map by StarMapPro and Wikipedia

Earth Shine

The Moon on the 3rd of January 2014
photographed with a telephoto lens
attached to my Canon 600 D DSLR

The new crescent Moon was shining bright near the western horizon at 18.00 hours. Sunlight reflected by the Earth was sufficient to illuminate the 'Highlands and Maria' on the rest of the Moon's disk.